Many US States Consider Abandoning Daylight Savings Time (newsweek.com)

An anonymous reader writes: A special Massachusetts commission recommends the state stop observing Daylight Savings TIme "if a majority of other northeast states, also possibly including New York, also do so." After a 9-to-1 vote, the head of the commission reported their conclusion after months of study: "There's no good reason why we're changing these clocks twice a year"... According to local reports, "The commission studied the pros and cons of the move and found, for example, retailers liked the idea of more daylight late in the day for shoppers... They also said there would be less crime, fewer traffic accidents and we would actually save energy."

A Maine state representative argues that it's actually harmful to observe Daylight Savings Time. "Some of those harms include an increased risk of stroke, more heart attacks, miscarriages for in vitro fertilization patients, among many other undesirable complications," reports Newsweek. Maine's legislature has already passed a bill approving an end to daylight savings time -- if Massachusetts and New Hampshire also end the practice, and if voters approve the change in a referendum.
At least six states are considering changing the time zones, according to Newsweek, and when it comes to Daylight Savings Time, the Maine representative told a reporter she had just one question.

"Why do we keep doing this to ourselves?"

Comments

It's"daylight saving"

[Spy Handler]

singular, not plural.

Also you don't need to capitalize each word. This is English, not German.

Think of it like this: during a melee you pick up a +5 magic sword and say, "It's ass kicking time!". Not "It's Ass Kickings Time!"

This is incorrect

[maroberts]

What they're suggesting is actually remaining on "Summer" time all year round.

Not quite

[sjames]

Several northern states are considering going from Eastern to Atlantic time, effectively springing ahead and never falling back.

Re:Daylights savings causes miscarriages? strokes?

[phantomfive]

Ever since cell phones came out, I don't even notice DST anymore. It just kind of happens and my clocks adjust automatically.

Re:Make the entire year DST

[msauve]

But of course, only an idiot would think that DST actually saves any daylight.

Which is better than a the author of the summary, who's straight out lying. Where they (EditorDavid?) claim "A special Massachusetts commission recommends the state stop observing Daylight Savings TIme", the actual article says

Massachusetts should only consider moving to what in essence is year-round Daylight Saving Time

...which is exactly the opposite of what the summary says.

It's also sheer idiocy. But that's not surprising, since they studied a bunch of idiots - "retailers liked the idea of more daylight late in the day for shoppers." Sorry, no, there is no "more daylight." A government law can't change astrophysics. If people want more light after working hours, push for a change from a 9-5 to a 8-4 working day. Clocks are based around solar noon. We're screwing it up half the year now, don't screw it up for the full year.

Re: You left off

[Anonymous Coward]

Try living North. It gets DARK at 3:30pm here without the time change. That hour of light during the working man's day means a great deal southey.

Re:Any language is "effective" by your standard

[Paradise Pete]

What makes English easy to use and understand is that it is so very redundant.

And it's not tonal. Mispronounced words are easier to understand, and tone can be use to convey meaning even when the vocabulary is lacking.

Re:Make the entire year DST

[Anonymous Coward]

The actual day is 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4.1 seconds, so we are already off by having a 24 hour day.

Uhh, no. You're talking about a sidereal day, which is the rotation of the earth relative to the rest of the universe, and the reason that is different is because we are in orbit around the sun and that orbit shifts our relationship with the universe around us. Imagine spinning in a circle while you're on a merry-go-round that is itself spinning (much slower than you), and you are talking about your relationship to the school that the merry-go-round is near, not your relationship to the center of the merry-go-round. That is much different than a solar day, which is the commonplace use of the term "day". Otherwise, you'd effectively shift two hours in your daylight rotation every month. You're not even being pedantic here, just absurd.

Re:Sigh

[belg4mit]

They buried the lead in the summary. They're not just considering an end to DST, but a simultaneous shift from Eastern to Atlantic time zone.

Re:You left off

[Anonymous Coward]

Why would the cows care about what number a pointer on a clockface is pointing to? If they want to be milked an hour after dawn, the farmer milks them an hour after dawn.

Re:Make the entire year DST

[swillden]

The actual day is 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4.1 seconds

It's blindingly obvious that this cannot be true. Think about it. Our clocks measure 24-hour days. If the solar day (the time between when the sun is directly overhead) were actually almost four minutes shorter than 24 hours, noon would shift by two hours every month. Sunrise and sunset would shift by even more.

The figure you mention is correct if you're judging completion of a day by watching far-distant stars (sidereal day). If you're judging it by looking at the sun, which is what's useful for human schedules, the mean length of a day is 24 hours and 0.002 seconds (solar day).

The difference is that the apparent motion of distant stars is caused only by the Earth's rotation. The apparent motion of the sun is caused by the Earth's rotation and the Earth's orbital motion about the sun. Because the orbit is elliptical, the length of a solar day actually changes throughout the course of the year. But the mean length is ever so slightly more than 24 hours